


Nightmare's Dilemma

by EliteDelieght



Category: Zero Escape (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, luna and sigma are only mentioned, this is mostly about our boy kyle!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-21 20:43:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17050253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EliteDelieght/pseuds/EliteDelieght
Summary: At first, Kyle wasn't aware of the changes.It started with a nightmare.----In which Kyle is SHIFTing in his sleep





	Nightmare's Dilemma

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Chessanator](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chessanator/gifts).



> My gift for Chessanator for the Zecret Santa gift exchange!!!!! I hope you enjoy
> 
> in my head this ties back into the Two Carlos Plothole and has Kyle hop on back into Carlos #2's body in the main timeline. Of course, that makes '?' Carlos in this fic's universe! I know it isn't the best, but I truly hope you guys enjoy :)

At first, Kyle wasn't aware of the changes.

It started with a nightmare.

Running. His metal boots thudding against the floors of Rhizome-9. No matter which hall he took or which room he sprinted through, there was no escape. How could there be, when he was trapped. It wasn't as though he could leave the building. It wasn't clear who he was running from, or how they had gotten in, but the heartbeat in his ears urged him ever forward.

He'd awoken with a start, and instead of the usual powdered eggs, Luna had handed him a plate with pancakes in the morning. It was a welcome change, and Kyle didn't think to question it.

\---

It was several weeks before he dreamt again- weeks of blissful, silent sleep. After all, he had never had a dream that wasn't a nightmare.

This one took a new form. No running with his suit weighing him down, stealing the breath from his lungs. In fact, he couldn't seem to move at all. He was standing in his father's office- a room he wasn't allowed to enter on his own, and therefore had only seen a handful of times.

There was red paint- blood?- dripping from the walls, pooling on the floor. It dripped from the ceiling, and when he tipped his head back it trickled down his face like tears. There was something rotting inside of him, he could feel it, and the thick liquid congealing on his skin wasn't a catalyst, but something that sang out in harmony.

He was crying when he woke up. The dream troubled him so much that he didn't think to question it when Luna smiled at him; her hair curled around her face instead of pinned up as it usually was.

\---

Somehow, being aware that he was dreaming only made it worse. The frantic need to wake up did nothing to actually help- it only made his anxiety spike.

He was standing in the lab- not frozen, but still trapped. The doors refused to open. There were... things floating in the tanks that lined the walls. People. Thick, gelatinous liquid suspended them. They hung like puppets, curled slightly into themselves. And they stared out at Kyle with dead, empty eyes.

Logically, he knew they were fake. A figment of his imagination.

But that didn't stop them from whispering.

"Brother..." A bang against the glass, but when he whirled around they were all still. "Little brother...."

The shadows were encroaching upon him, drifting from their homes in the corners to stretch across the floor towards his feet. Skeletal hands reaching, reaching, reaching....

His father was softer in the morning- kinder than he had been as long as Kyle could remember. Not that his father was cruel- he was simply... distant. It was strange, to have him ask Kyle how he had slept, and whether he had any plans for the day.

Like clockwork, however, he disappeared into his lab after breakfast, and didn't emerge until far past dinner.

\---

The nightmares continued long into his adult years- they continued past Akane, past joining his father in the lab, and past any other event in his monotonous life. It took him years to notice the changes- never anything large, nothing life changing. A different meal, a change in personality. Sometimes even a different colored door, or something out of place.

It was perplexing, and no one else ever seemed to notice it. He had pointed it out to Akane once- phrased it as a simple question. She hadn't answered him right away. In fact, the only response he got was her piercing gaze staring through his helmet into the very depths of his soul.

And then she had nodded, and smiled, and assured him that all would make sense in time.

He mulled over her cryptic answer- which was both common and familiar by that point. Though perhaps a bit shorter than her usual long-winded explanations. And though time did pass, and the nightmares and strange changes continued, he could find no correlation between the two. He took to the library for answers and found books on all sorts of subjects. The multiverse theory, alternate realities, the Mandela effect... But none of it related back to dreams at all.

At the end of the day, it was more a general annoyance than a pressing matter. And so Kyle continued to work side-by-side with his father in the labs, producing strange puzzles and even stranger scientific work.

By the time he learned the truth of their research, his nightmares seemed unimportant.

"Why are you telling me all this?" His voice was ragged with desperation, his helmet long since abandoned. Akane sat across from him, her smile sadder than he had ever seen it.

"Because you aren't going to remember any of this, Kyle." She assured him. He ripped himself away from her, his footsteps loud as he paced back and forth.

"I can't let you do this. You can't do this!" He turned on her, fists clenched.

"You can't stop what's been set in motion, child."

"I have to." She shook her head once more, rising to her feet with an innate grace Kyle could never hope to match in his clunky metal suit.

"You're needed elsewhere." She said, passing by him on her way to the door.

"Elsewhere...?"

"Earth." She still wasn't facing him, but that single word struck a cord of shock within him.

"That's... Don't be ridiculous! I can't go to Earth!" He shook his head, fighting the urge to cross his arms. "Please, please reconsider. There's still time. I can help! I can save you!"

"My decision is final." She said, her tone as firm as he had ever heard it. "I know what you've been reading, in the library."

"What?"

"You know of the multiverse theory, correct?"

Kyle paused, his anger slowly turning to confusion. "I am... aware of it, yes." He hedged.

"Well, it's... something a bit like that." She turned to him, her figure outlined in the light from the hall. "And something a bit like time travel."

"Akane." His voice was exasperated.

"Spacetime Human Internal Fluctuating Transfer." She said, interrupting him.

"Pardon?"

"SHIFTing." She said. "You see, both you and your father- and myself, to an extent, are espers known as SHIFTers. By tapping into the morphogenetic field, we are able to throw our consciousness into an alternate history in moments of extreme danger."

Kyle groaned, the heels of his hands pressing against his eyelids until starbursts of color appeared. "Even... even if what you're saying is true, it doesn't matter. I'm not... I'm not SHIFTing anywhere- I don't even know how!"

"But Kyle..." Her smile- as calm as ever- suddenly gained a note of mischief that made her look far younger than she was. "You've been doing it for years."

"... Pardon?" The strained note in his voice was impossible to miss.

"Surely you've noticed." She smiled, pressing a hand to her mouth. "You came to me about it once, when it was troubling you. As I said, it only occurs during moments in which you truly feel your life is in danger."

"I've never felt like that!" He protested.

"You have. When you have nightmares, your body and mind attempt to protect you the only way they know how." She nodded, taking a step towards him and placing a hand on his shoulder, guiding him back to the comfort of his bed. "You've been SHIFTing yourself into alternate timelines- ones with only minor changes, of course, and not often enough for me to attempt to put a stop to it."

"But... Then... every time?" He asked hoarsely.

"Well, frankly, there's no way of telling." She chuckled, running a hand gently through his hair. Despite the gentle touch, his heart was hammering in his ears, the sheer possibilities that were now open in front of him were boggling to the mind.

"Then... Earth?" He found himself, for the first time in his life, incapable of forming coherent sentences.

"Yes. In the year 2028, your father and I will be attempting to save the world." She said, as though that made any semblance of sense.

"Don't you mean... that you tried to?"

"No, we will. Or, he will. And you will, as well." She smiled at him. "There's so much I can't explain to you, Kyle... But I have confidence in your abilities. Your father and I will be counting on you to find us."

"But- how?" He frowned. "I need more information!"

"Find us at Dcom. I assure you, the rest will be clear in time." She laughed, as though amused by her own joke.

Before he could even think to respond, Akane pulled her hand back, and his gaze was drawn to the syringe clutched in her grip. As it plunged downwards towards him, time seemed to come to a blurred standstill.

And then he was gone.


End file.
